Rogue Nation
American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions
By Clyde Prestowitz
Basic Books
HC, 430 pg. US$26/C$40
ISBN: 0-4650-6279-2
Blaming America from the right
By Steven Martinovich
web posted September 1, 2003
There is a type of American who while abroad and sitting at his
dinner host's table nods his head knowingly when he hears his
countrymen described as provincial, arrogant and too
unsophisticated to understand the realities of the world. Judging
by Rogue Nation: American Unilaterialism and the Failure of
Good Intentions former Reagan administration official Clyde
Prestowitz is one of those Americans. His embarrassment of his
nation's political and economic policies is palpable throughout his
book.
Rogue Nation reads as if it had been penned by an anti-
American European intellectual -- with all that implies -- and not
a man described as a conservative Republican. It is the latest
entry in an already crowded field that sees the author's pet
peeves become axes to grind in an attempt to prove America is a
dangerous imperial power. With a list that includes the Kyoto
Protocol, the International Criminal Court and environmentalism,
among others, it's a book drags any issue it can – whether
related or not – into the fray to prove its point.
It is Prestowitz's contention that the United States is a rogue
nation -- that is one that engages in unilateral actions with good
intentions but is deaf to the concerns of the rest of the world
when it goes adventuring. America is an elephant that means no
harm to its smaller friends but often ends up trampling them when
it begins to move with purpose. It pronounces rather than
explains and despite its usually honorable intentions it can
occasionally engage in atrocious behavior.
Although American foreign policy has always suffered from some
inconsistency Prestowitz lays much of the blame on the current
Bush administration and its actions before and after September
11, 2001. Prestowitz accuses Bush of overturning two centuries
of strategic policy and moved America from the status of
reluctant superpower to imperial entity with its new doctrine of
preemptive strikes when necessary. It wasn't until the Second
World War, he argues, that the United States took an active role
in the world, necessitated by the Soviet Union. For six decades it
joined and helped create international organizations and
promoted a multilateral approach to problems.
Prestowitz is right but only to a certain extent. For much of
America's history it was a nation wary of alliances and foreign
wars but it is credibly argued by many historians that this stance
was a necessary one because it simply wasn't able to project its
power across the world. As America's power began to grow
over the last century, history documents increasing adventurism
both in the Western hemisphere and overseas. America's post-
war multilateralism was only possible because it and the free
European nations shared the same goal, defence against the
communist world. Once that threat receded no one should have
been surprised that the different philosophies and histories that
motivate the United States and the European nations should see
them increasingly take different roads.
Unfortunately his analysis of America's strategic policy is the
strongest part of the book. From there Rogue Nation begins to
read as if it were a screed by a member of International
A.N.S.W.E.R. Why is America unpopular around the world?
According to Prestowitz it's because of issues like the Kyoto
Protocol, globalization, national missile defence, and America's
support for Israel and Taiwan. Thanks to cherry picking of
evidence to support his arguments, apart from the Kyoto
Protocol he barely makes an effort to see both sides of an issue,
Prestowitz is unable to find a foreign criticism of the United
States that he can't validate.
To be fair to Prestowitz he does make several valid criticisms of
Bush administration trade policy. Bush the candidate campaigned
on the expansion of free trade but Bush the president has failed
to live up to those promises. Subsidies to farmers have only
grown more generous, tariffs are levied to redress American
weakness in certain industries and no new major trade deals
have been announced since the Clinton administration. Bush's
abandonment of the free trade ethos is surely one of his greatest
failures and Prestowitz is entirely correct in accusing the United
States of hypocrisy.
It's been a banner couple of years -- not surprisingly coinciding
with the election of George W. Bush -- for books criticizing the
United States. Most have been juvenile exercises that failed to
address the arguments that support policies they disagree with
and they tend to simply repeat the same old mantras that we saw
on protest signs earlier this year. One doesn't expect a higher
standard from conservative Republicans but if Rogue Nation has
proved one thing it's that they are no less susceptible to facile,
one-dimensional arguments than their counterparts on the
political left.
Steven Martinovich is a freelance writer in Sudbury, Ontario.
Enter Stage Right -- http://www.enterstageright.com